The green factor: Unpacking green job growth

Drawing on data from the Labour Force Survey of the United Kingdom (2011–14), this article estimates the number of green jobs in Scotland and identifies change over time, using a methodological framework that can be applied to any region, based on ISCO‐08 and O*NET. The findings highlight the value of charting changes in green jobs based on inclusive rather than “purist” definitions to better capture the broader impact of greening on jobs. The findings also indicate a need for greater analytical attention to issues of green job quality and inclusive green job growth.     

Supporting open innovation with the use of a balanced scorecard approach: a study on deep smarts and effective knowledge transfer to SMEs

Abstract

This study aims to develop the theory of knowledge management and organizational performance within a small and medium enterprise (SME) context using action research (AR) involving a higher education institution (HEI) and an SME. The vehicle for the knowledge exchange was Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), the United Kingdom’s primary mechanism for delivering government funded knowledge transfer to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). KTPs facilitate knowledge exchange from HEIs to SMEs via the recruitment of a graduate plus an academic supervisor from the partnering HEI. The AR study was an award-winning KTP and the project deliverable included the implementation of a balanced scorecard for the SME to improve organizational performance. The transfer of knowledge was subsequently fed-back into the university in order to develop a performance framework for measuring the effectiveness of KTP research within the HEI in order to share knowledge and improve effective for other KTP projects.     

Existential Risks to Humanity Should Concern International Policymakers and More Could Be Done in Considering Them at the International Governance Level

In this perspective, we consider the possible role of the United Nations (UN) with respect to existential risks to human civilization and the survival of humanity. We illustrate how existential risks have been discussed at an international governance level, specifically in documents in the UN Digital Library. In this large corpus, discussions of nuclear war account for over two-thirds (69%, 67/97) of mentions of existential risks, while mention of other existential risks, or such risks as a category, appears scant. We take these observations to imply inadequate attention to these significant threats. These deficits, combined with the need for a global response to many risks, suggest that UN member nations should urgently advocate for appropriate action at the UN to address threats, such as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, geoengineering, and supervolcanic eruption, in analogous fashion to existing attempts to mitigate the threats from nuclear war or near-Earth objects.     

THE “SALES AGENT” PROBLEM: EFFORT/LEISURE ALLOCATION UNDER PERFORMANCE PAY AS BEHAVIOR TOWARDS RISK

The choice between safe and risky assets represents behavior towards risk: more risk‐averse investors buy more safe assets. We develop and test a general model that applies this intuition to the time allocation between risky effort and risk‐free leisure under linear incentives. When risk increases with effort, risk‐averse agents choose less effort, but when risk is independent of effort, effort choice is unaffected by risk preferences. In many incentive contracts, income risk is multiplicative with, rather than additive to effort, sales commissions being one example. In such cases, lower effort by the risk‐averse is a hitherto undocumented behavior towards risk (JEL C91, M52, J33)     

Toward a critical sociology of lifestyle migration: reconceptualizing migration and the search for a better way of life

This article places under critical and reflexive examination the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of lifestyle migration. Developed to explain the migration of the relatively affluent in search of a better way of life, this concept draws attention to the role of lifestyle within migration, alongside understandings of migration as one stage within the ongoing lifestyle choices and trajectories of individual migrants. Through a focus on two paradigms that are currently at work within theorizations of this social phenomenon – individualization and mobilities – we evaluate their contribution to this flourishing field of research. In this way, we demonstrate the limitations and constraints of these for understanding lifestyle migration; engaging with long‐standing debates around structure and agency to make a case for the recognition of history in understanding the pursuit of ‘a better way of life’; questioning the extent to which meaning is made through movement, and the politics and ethics of replacing migration with mobilities. Through this systematic consideration, we pave the way for re‐invigorated theorizing on this topic, and the development of a critical sociology of lifestyle migration.     

Microstructures of economic action: talk,interaction and the bottom line

This paper contributes to an expanding body of research that has analysed the interactional foundations of economic activity, and price determination, by quantifying the financial implications of different micro‐interactional practices. Drawing on video recordings of naturalistic interaction the paper analyses a simple consumer choice, whether to pay one of two prices, the lower ‘standard’ price (£8.00) or the higher ‘gift aid’ (£8.80) price, to enter an arts institution. Utilizing resources from conversation analysis, the paper analyses different ways of posing this choice. It describes how, as interactional constraints tighten, standard prices become less socially desirable and customers increasingly ‘volunteer’ to pay the higher price. The paper contributes to sociological understandings of economic activity, demonstrating how simple one‐off choices, and prices, are accountably responsive to micro‐interactional structures.     

Brexit,Private Equity and Management

We analyse the expected impact of Brexit on private equity and its implications for management research. Specifically, we explore the implications for private equity funds and funding, and at the portfolio firm level with respect to employment and performance.